Noah’s Ark Pitted Against Kentucky Schools in Property Tax Tiff

A Kentucky court will decide a property tax dispute of biblical proportions over how to value a tourist attraction modeled after Noah’s Ark.

The Grant County Board of Education is suing the region’s property valuation administrator, seeking a $130 million valuation—more than twice the original $48,068,200 assessment value—for Ark Encounter LLC, a biblical-based theme park housed inside a 500-foot-long boat-shaped structure in Williamstown, K.Y.

The rural school district wants a Kentucky circuit court to raise the property’s assessed value, which it says would stop the theme park from underpaying tax by $470,288 annually. The religious for-profit owners say they are paying a fair rate.

The complaint, filed in July, started drawing attention when details surfaced in local media reports earlier this month, because the school district alleges the valuation is puny for an attraction so large, and so profitable.

The Ark Encounter’s owner received a state tourism tax credit up to $18 million in sales tax rebates due to ownership’s $92 million capital investment in the project. After opening in July 2016 the company claimed 1 million visitors came in the park’s first year.

An exhibit of model animals displayed inside the Noah’s Ark replica at the Ark Encounter theme park in Williamstown, Ky.

Photographer: Luke Sharrett/Bloomberg via Getty Images

The schools claim the site generated revenue between $30 million and $40 million annually.

“Since the matter is presently in litigation, we have no comment at the present time, other than to say that as required by law, we have been faithfully paying our property taxes each year as assessed by the county’s PVA, and these monies have greatly benefited the school district, library, etc.,” the attraction’s owner, Answers In Genesis, said in a statement.

The Ark has navigated tax regulation since its inception. The ownership tried to side-step a 50-cent local ticket taxby selling the property to an affiliated nonprofit for $10. That transfer was annulled after the state suspended the $18 million in sales tax rebates because the law requires the rebates be given to a for-profit company.

The case is: Grant County Bd. of Educ. v. Grant County Prop. Valuation Adm’r, Ky. Cir. Ct., No. 19-CI-204, 7/2/19.